Ernie Sims, Jr., organizing youth conference starting Tuesday

Ernie Sims gets ready to measure Alex Holmes,11, shot put throw during a practice for the Captial City Christian Cruisers at North Florida Christian School on Thursday evening. Alice and Ernie Sims, former Florida State athletes started the running club 10 years ago to help keep at-risk kids off the street.(Photo: Carrie Niland)

Ernie Sims, Jr., is on a mission to bring young people from all walks of life together.

Sims, a father of four and grandfather of three, knows the best time to reach someone is when they’re young and still forming opinions about the world. The former FSU running back currently mentors kids with the Capital City Christian Cruisers Track Club — which is about to celebrate 20 years in Tallahassee — and said helping kids is “what God has put on (his) heart.”

Sims’ next undertaking might also be the most difficult one, but it’s one he believes will also be the most rewarding. He’s in charge of organizing the inaugural I Am Youth Conference Tuesday through Thursday at Restoration Place on North Monroe Street.

The conference, Sims said, will bring together youngsters aged 12 to 18 from all faiths, genders, races and socioeconomic backgrounds.

“We’ve reached into what is truly the inner city of Tallahassee,” Sims said. “We’ve reached teens who really need to hear the gospel of Jesus Christ. We’re going into the homeless shelters, we’re going into the Tallahassee Housing Authority and we’re going into Capital City Youth Services. If we had the ability to reach the children in the detention centers, we’d go there, too.”

Helping kids is something that runs in the Sims family. Sims’ son, former FSU linebacker Ernie Sims III, who was drafted ninth overall by the Detriot Lions in 2006, returns to Tallahassee every year to host a popular youth football camp. Sims III was recently signed by the Arizona Cardinals.

“My first mission with working with kids was with our family,” said Sims, who also serves as a volunteer student director at Celebrate New Life Church. “The church is important, but you have to pass through your family before anything else.”

Multiple guest speakers from churches both in Florida and nationwide will speak at the conference. There will also be a youth forum and specific parts of the conference will cater to young men and women.

Bringing together churches to organize the event has been difficult, Sims said. However the conference is more about bringing the kids together to hear the word of God. Doug Ott, program coordinator with Friends of Florida State Forests, is currently helping out with the organization of the event.

He said he’s hoping 500 to 800 youths show up for the conference, and that he’s expecting many of them to register the first day of the event.

Ott said the conference should be a success with Sims leading the way.

“I just know he’s touched the lives of thousands of youths and families,” Ott said. “This is just another vision God gave him to touch the lives of youths as they move forward toward adulthood.”

Sims said he’s not looking to use this conference to recruit kids to church. Receiving the word of God doesn’t need to be “confined to the four walls of a church,” he said.

Plus, as an adult, Sims said he hopes to show youngsters an example of what Christian living really looks like – and prove to them it’s not always perfect.

“I am hoping and praying that none of us who are hosting this conference believe we ‘have it together,’” he said. “We want to show the kids that God is working on us, too. We want to show these kids to be a Christian you don’t have to be perfect.”

Ott and Sims are both still looking for corporate and private sponsors for the event.

“The cost for the event is hopefully going to be reduced with different sponsors,” Ott said. “Hopefully we can hosts this at a minimal cost as Ernie finds more sponsors. There are costs involved, but the goal is to keep things minimal.”

If the kids who attend walk away thinking about God’s message, Sims said he’ll be a happy man.

“God is everything and we want to be transparent about that,” Sims said. “We want these kids to know God is everything to us. He isn’t just a Bible you carry to church. He is that, but he is more than that.”